Annnnddd It's Already June.

Let's not talk about how it is already June...

Anyway this week was pretty normal. School, hanging out with friends, getting into a 2 year anniversary party at this Umeshu bar. Wait what? Oh yeah, so that was pretty awesome actually. 

This is what a semi-swanky party looks like at a bar

Okay so I had had plans for a while to take a friend to this Umeshu bar (still don't really know the real name, just we all call it the umeshu bar) I had been to a few times before. So the two of us arrive at the bar, and to our surprise a party was going on! So we sorta hovered around the door for a while wondering if we could get in. And since the door was glass, we were noticed haha. Anyway so this guy comes out and we tell him that we didn't know about the party, blah blah blah, and he tells us that the two year anniversary party of the bar being open was that night but since we came all the way there he told us that we could get in for 5,200 yen for all you can eat/drink. And they had some like super rare/expensive umeshu that was all you could drink as well. We responded that since we were college students that was a bit expensive to which he told us we could then get in for 4,500. We still weren't really sure about spending that much money, so we left the building and talked about going somewhere else. But in the end since we had finally come there, and we both had money and didn't mind spending it that night, we went back in.

So here we are at this semi(?) exclusive party. And since it was all you could drink/eat we did exactly that, drink and eat. Since we both really like umeshu and food, we were pretty happy. We were especially happy about the expensive/rare umeshu that we got to drink since it was pretty delicious. There was also live music going on too! We also ended up talking to a lot of random people (got so many business cards that night) and were even a part of their commemorative photo (even though we had nothing to do with the bar haha). We also learned that the guy who had told us to come in was the owner of the place! As the party was ending we decided we really liked one of the more expensive umeshus and thought we would ask if they had any for sale. Sadly we were told that they didn't have it for sale, but then the owner was like, "Why don't you take home this bottle for free!" At first we did the whole, what nooo we can't take it for free thing, but in the end we actually got to take this more than halfway full huge bottle of umeshu that costs around 3,300 yen a bottle!!!

The owner, my friend, me, and umeshu!~

So even though it was a bit pricey to get in, we ended up getting a free bottle of umeshu! I'm so glad we went that night! Haha :)

The next day I didn't have class (thankfully) so I went out to eat a late lunch with Becky in Harajuku at our favorite pancake place Sunday Jam! I got the Green Pancakes which included pancakes, zucchini, avocado  pesto, garlic butter, and sauce. So. Good.

Just looking at the picture makes me want to eat it right nowwww!

Friday I had class, which is becoming so hard not to skip. Let's just talk about how usually I would have summer vacation right now, so going to class when the weather is beautiful is so hard. It's also hard when the class you have to go to is pretty much complete bullshit. One of my one credit Japanese classes is such a mystery. Literally, no one in that class has any idea what the hell is going on. We once had to graph what we thought a chameleon's feelings would be...yeah. But the teacher is super nice so at least there is that.

I had plans to go bowling later in the evening with friends, but I was free after 2:30 so I just hung out with friends in the Niji lounge. And then we started playing hide-and-seek. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it before, but one day I just decided I wanted to play hide-and-seek, and since then sometimes when we are all free we just play hide-and-seek in random places around campus. Sometimes we even play in the club room, which is hilarious, because there aren't real places to hide to everyone just hides in the silliest ways and the person who is "it" just pretends not to see them. Hilarious.

Sometimes we play outside!

When we play inside we have to get creative like this.

And this.

Even when we play outside we have to get creative!

This was the most intense hiding place/position ever. 

Since we played hide-and-seek a couple of times we worked up quite an appetite, so we went to eat abura soba which is probably pretty bad for your health but incredibly delicious. I'm going to miss abura soba so much...
And then we went bowling!! I was pretty exhausted by then, so I didn't play my best, but it was a lot of fun!
And since the game center was on the floor below the bowling alley, we took purikura too! My goal was to take purikura 20 times in Japan!

I'm pretty sure this was either the 15th or 16th time!~

After hanging out there for a while we somehow had energy to walk to Shin-Okubo and eat papingsu!~
Pretty great start to the weekend!
Tonight I'm having dinner with people from Earlham and the professor who will be teaching our comps course next semester!
And Sunday is the famous baseball game between Waseda and Keio!

Oh! And did I ever mention I'm doing another night hike in Tokyo!? This time I planned it! We are walking from Waseda to Tokyo Skytree, then to Tokyo Tower, and then back to Waseda!~

Running on less that four hours of sleep. That's what I get for staying out all night lol. Like I don't consider myself to be one of those people who goes clubbing a lot, but clubbing in Japan is so much fun. And the club we went to last night was amazing!

Anyway soon I will be leaving for Shimane. I have a lot to do to prepare before then...but at least I'm done with everything for this semester! Yay!!!

And today I got to eat pancakes with Becky and some Japanese friends I haven't seen for a while. Afterwards Becky, one of the Japanese guys we were with, and I just walked around Harajuku, Omotesando, and Shibuya as well. It was a lot of fun hanging out with him. Some people are just easier to talk to than others sometimes.

Tomorrow I have another orientation for Shimane and then a dinner for the people who are going to the Philippines and Korea together. Exciting!!! I need to start saving money haha.

Christmas Eve!~

Yesterday was Christmas Eve! And today is Christmas! Yay!~ But to be honest, I haven't really felt the "Christmas spirit" much here. Even with all the Christmas lights and incredibly weird English Christmas songs (I have never heard such weird Christmas songs in my life...so random), I definitely don't feel the same way I usually do around Christmas back home. I do miss the snow, making Christmas cookies, and decorating the tree. That being said, I did have a really nice Christmas Eve, and I look forward to opening presents with my host family tonight.

So anyway, yesterday I was craving pancakes; nothing else would satisfy me. Luckily, I knew of a pancake restaurant not too far from my apartment. I've never been to it before, but I've seen a super long line outside of the place so I knew it would be good. And since it was a Monday afternoon, I thought it would be pretty easy to get into. Boy was I wrong. At around 3:30 I went to go pick up my friend from Harajuku station so we could get pancakes for a late lunch. I immediately noticed an influx in couples the second I stepped outside. Which made sense since it was Christmas Eve. I was not anticipating, however, the mass amount of people that would be walking around Harajuku and Omotesando. Now Harajuku is a pretty popular place, and I've seen it get pretty crowded before. But I've never seen it this crowded. It was ridiculous. Usually it takes me five minutes or less to walk through Takeshita dori to get to the station. But since there were so many people, it took forever. Eventually I found my friend and we started off to the pancake place.

I was assuming that since it was like 4 in the afternoon, and since the restaurant was on a side street, that the pancake place would have space. Boy was I wrong again. There was a line but it wasn't that long so we decided to wait. We soon found out, however, that reservations had taken up most of the day, so the next available time to eat would be 7 at night. I was somewhat shocked that the place had that many reservations. Thankfully I knew of another pancake place which also had a line, but was not that crowded! We waited about 15 minutes or so, but it was well worth the wait (also I think they let us in a bit early since everyone got a ticket number and most people went to shop while they waited but we just stayed in the restaurant). I got a coconut latte and maple and nuts pancakes which came with delicious whipped cream and the best bacon I've ever had in my life. So. Good. But it was a bit too much sweetness overload, so I wasn't able to eat all of it.

So pretty!~

Seriously this was worth the overpriced price we payed.

After eating we decided to walk around the area we were in for a bit. I had never been to that part of Omotesando/Harajuku, so I was really glad we ended up there. There were so many awesome shops! I literally live in the best neighborhood. I'm so lucky/grateful. We found an amazing sticker shop which were all original designs from a guy there. I'm definitely going to go back and buy more stickers! After a bit of shopping, we decided to head to Tokyo Station where I had planned an event to see illuminations. I'm glad we left when we did. The main Omotesando street was ridiculously crowded. It reminded me of New Years instead of Christmas. I mean, I knew Christmas was a couple holiday, but no one warned us how crowded places would get! It made me realize I really do live in a huge metropolis...

So many people!!!

There were so many good stickers it was hard to pick one!

After getting out of the crazy crowd, we got to Tokyo Station and waited for everyone else (some fellow study abroad students and Japanese friends, 9 people in all) to show up. Sadly, the main illumination (a light show on the actually station building outside) was cancelled since the staff there was worried the crowd would get too big. But there was still some illuminations outside which we went to see. We all had a lot of fun! The illuminations were beautiful. There were a lot of couples there and people doing poses by the illuminations, so me and my one Japanese friend started to imitate their poses in our pictures. It was pretty hilarious. I'm glad people actually came to the event I planned (like two days before Christmas Eve haha). It's nice to have great friends here!~ After illuminations we went to get dinner and a couple of us went to karaoke afterwards (were we of course sang Christmas songs). Overall I had a wonderful Christmas Eve and made some great memories. I'm going to be so sad when I leave here...but for now I'll just enjoy my time here as much as possible (which I am)!~
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!~

Sort of like a candle!

Our two guys of the night being pretty cute.

One of my favorite photos of the night!

A huge Christmas tree!

My favorite illumination.

Karaoke!~